Political adviser Erika Casajoana will be the number 4 candidate, and will be followed by Gorka Knörr, former MEP for the Basque pro-independence Eusko Alkartasuna party and former vice president of the Basque parliament.

Return with immunity

Puigdemont stated in March that if he were elected as an MEP, he would return to Catalonia using the immunity granted to all members of the European Parliament.

Comín was until now been linked to Esquerra, the other mainstream pro-independence party in Catalonia.

Esquerra's ticket topped by Junqueras

Esquerra's list in the European election will be topped by the vice president of Puigdemont's former cabinet, Oriol Junqueras, who has been in preventive detention for nearly a year and a half.

When presenting the ticket on Monday morning, a Junts per Catalunya official insisted that a unitary pro-independence list would be the best option, gathering both Esquerra and Puigdemont's list.

In order to persuade Esquerra, the former president would accept being number two to Junqueras in a potential joint ticket, party members said on Monday. A unitary candidacy was ruled out by Esquerra again later on the day.